Chamberlain’s Charge

 

The Civil War produced many great stories of bravery and heroism. One of those lesser-known heroes was Joshua Chamberlain, who was a thirty-four year old schoolteacher who served in the Union Army. Chamberlain achieved the rank of colonel, and was soon tasked with an important mission. 

 

The Northern army was spread out over a great distance in Gettysburg, and they could not afford to lose the high ground to the Rebels. Chamberlain’s 20^th Maine Regiment made up the end of the line—if they allowed the Confederates to get past them, they would lose the war. “Hold the line at all costs” were his orders. He and his 300 men were prepared to fight til the death to ensure Union victory. 

 

On July 2^nd, 1863, the the South began their charge. Five separate times the Confederate soldiers charged Chamberlain, and all five times the 20^th Maine battled them back. But that was all they were equipped to do. Those 300 men were down to just 80, and they were completely out of ammunition. They knew the next time the South made a move, they were doomed. When they saw the enemy approaching Chamberlain remembered his orders. Staying put was a suicide mission; retreat would cost them the war. Chamberlain looked at his men and shouted for them to affix their bayonets, and then yelled, “Charge!”

 

Those 80 men followed his lead, sprinting down the hill towards certain death. That is, until the Confederates dropped their loaded weapons and ran in retreat. Chamberlain’s 80 men took 400 prisoners of war—all without a single round of ammo. 

 

What happened? The Confederate soldiers figured the only way Chamberlain would go on the offensive was if he had reinforcements; they thought they were the ones outmanned, so they ran, not knowing their captors carried unloaded guns.  

 

This true story only took place because Chamberlain made a quick decisions. When he was out of options, he thought to himself, “When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act.” That choice to act helped end the war and keep the states united. 

 

We will be faced with similar situations in which we do not know what to do. That is normal. In those moments, when we don’t know what to do, let’s do what we do know. Inactivity is not the solution. Standing still accomplishes nothing. I always liked how Paul said it: “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).” 

 

When life is hard, when it doesn’t make sense, when you feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, just put one foot in front of the other. Take one step, and then another, and then another. Keep living. Keep serving. Keep worshipping. When faced with doing nothing or doing something, do something. Press on, and you may just see the enemy lay down his weapons and surrender. 

 

God Can’t Learn

  

Did you know that God cannot learn? He does not have the ability. 

 

That may sound like blasphemy. When we speak of a person’s inability to learn, it is usually an offensive, even if honest, assessment. When a person is unable to learn, there is usually some mental explanation as to why. Some people cannot learn, period. Some people cannot grasp certain subjects (like me and algebra. OK, like me and math in general). We throw up our hands in desperation when someone cannot learn. 

 

And yet God cannot learn. Many times we say things like “God can do anything,” or “There is nothing that God cannot do.” In reality, there are several things that God cannot do. He cannot die or lie, for example. It is also true that God cannot learn. 

 

God cannot learn because there is nothing He does not already know. Learning implies a person is lacking in some knowledge, but that cannot be said of God. As A.W. Tozer so simply put it in his classic work The Knowledge of the Holy, “To think of a God who must sit at the feet of a teacher, even though that teacher be an archangel or a seraph, is to think of someone other than the Most Hight God, maker of heaven and earth.” Tozer continued, “He never discovers anything. He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything, nor…does He seek information or ask questions.” 

 

Even when God asks questions of people, it is for the benefit of the one He is asking (“Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”), not so that God can learn. 

 

We refer to this attribute of God as His divine omniscience. Isaiah posed this rhetorical question: “Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding (40:13-14)?” The answer is nobody.

 

David once wrote, “Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You (Psalm 139:12).” God is never in the dark about anything, because to God, the dark is the same as the light. Teachers often speak about that lightbulb coming on in the minds of their students when they finally catch on to a new concept, but for God, that light has been on even before He said “Let there be light.”  

 

Every time we learn something, it should be a comfort to remember that God never has.  

 

 

The Donut Shop

 

I love sweets. It’s hard for me to pass up dessert, and I often choose to eat less or no dinner in order to have room for the good stuff. I’d rather use my calories on cheesecake than cheesesteak. Is it hard for you to drive by that lit up Hot Now sign at Krispy Kreme? I try not to overindulge, but I’m not perfect. 

 

Sometimes I feel like the man who used to stop at his favorite bakery on the way in to work. He would bring in a box of donuts for his coworkers, but he made sure there was always plenty for him too. Eventually he knew he needed to go on a diet, so in order to avoid the temptation he changed his route to his office. Several months went by and he was doing great. One day an errand required that he drive right by that old bakery, and he wondered if he should pick up something for his coworkers since they were being so supportive. Maybe a donut for himself wouldn’t hurt either. He began to pray that if God wanted him to stop in the bakery, then to let him know by making the first parking spot open. And that is exactly what happened. The first spot was open, and he only had to circle the block five times first!

 

It is hard when we are tempted. Maybe your temptation is for something sweet too. Maybe it is your tongue or your thoughts. Maybe your temptation is what you put before your eyes or into your ears. James wrote, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (1:14-15).” Temptations are going to come well enough on their own without us going out and looking for it. Instead, we need to build safeguards to try to keep the temptation to sin from coming in. Change your commute. Hide a Facebook friend. Get rid of cable. Download software that blocks bad websites. 

 

If we do not try to escape temptation then we’ll keep circling the block until a parking spot opens and we give in. Lust gives birth to sin, and then sin gives birth to death. Not right away, of course; this only happens when sin has used us and abused us. 

 

Temptation will come, but the good news is that we are promised a way out. I Corinthians 10:13 says that with every temptation there is a way of escape so that we do not have to give in. Instead of looking for an open parking spot, lets look for a way of escape.  

 

 

 

 

A Spider and a Butterfly

Several years ago scientists learned how to merge together two insects very early in their development. One of the experiments involved the combination of a young fly spider and a young butterfly. These opposite creatures formed a freak of science. This poor insect was simultaneously drawn to the light and to the darkness. It wanted to fly and crawl at the same time. Worst of all, it had an appetite for both flowers and other insects. This Jekyll and Hyde-like insect was an experiment gone wrong. By being both spider and butterfly, it was really neither.

And yet the spider/butterfly may have something in common with us. There is a dichotomy that exists within many of us; we find ourselves pulled in two different directions. Maybe you hate alcohol because you know of its harmful effects, but yet you keep running back to it. Maybe you want to lose weight, but you also love ice cream (I mean the real kind, not that low fat nonsense). 

The dichotomy can also be spiritual. Maybe you know you should pray or read the Bible more, but every time you start to, you think of something else you could be doing with that time. Maybe you know you need to share the gospel with someone, but you choose to talk about sports, politics, the weather—anything but the Lord. Maybe you know you need to drop a bad habit, or pick up a good one, but you find yourself falling short. Perhaps you can relate to Paul, who wrote, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing…Wretched man that I am (Romans 7:15, 19, 24)!”

Paul explained the reason for this. We are like the spider-butterfly hybrid in that we are Christians and humans, in this world, but not of it. The key is to keep our minds on the things of God, not the things of this world. “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6).” If we dwell on worldly things, our actions will soon follow our thoughts. We could think about it like this: we are both spider and butterfly; whichever one we feed the most will win. We can feed the spider the carcasses of other insects, or we can feed the butterfly the flowers of the field. We need to pick just one. We can feed the flesh the things of this world, or we can starve the flesh while we feed the spirit the things of God.   

Which one will you choose to feed? 

The Importance of Pitch

Pitch is very important. No, I’m not talking about hitting the right note with your voice or instrument. And no, I’m not talking about the person on the mound trying to get a fastball past a batter. I’m talking about the asphalt-like substance found in the Bible. 

Pitch is found in connection to Noah’s ark. In Genesis 6:14 God instructed Noah this way: “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.” The word pitch in Hebrew literally means to cover, specifically with bitumen. Bitumen was an ancient asphalt used by many different people groups in the Middle East similar to our cement and mortar. Since the word meant to cover, it was used figuratively for covering a debt, as in forgiveness or appeasement. 

The same Hebrew word translated as pitch in Genesis 6:14 is translated as atone or atonement throughout the Old Testament. This is incredible. The reason the ark was covered in pitch was to ensure that water did not come in the cracks and spoil the vessel. Remember, the floodwaters were part of God’s judgment on man’s sin, so the pitch, or atonement, kept Noah and his seven relatives safe from God’s judgment. In a similar way, Moses’ mother used pitch to cover the basket that she placed her young son in (Exodus 2:3). 

That bitumen used as pitch covered Noah and his family from God’s wrath, and animal sacrifices were later made for the same reason. Leviticus 17:11 says blood makes atonement for the soul. In the Old Testament atonement was made to cover sins, but sin could not be forgiven because the blood of goats and bulls is not sufficient for that task. In this regard God’s wrath was appeased, but a better covering was needed. 

In the New Testament atonement carries the idea of man being reconciled to God, but that is only possible because of the death of Jesus. Pitch—whether covering a boat, a basket, or a believer—was only a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do once and for all at Calvary. Moses and Noah were covered; so were all who trusted in God’s sacrificial system. The only question now is, have you been covered by the blood of Jesus?